One has to imagine also that there will be a growth in related tech employment around the NGA campus; anticipating this possible growth is to me a good, concrete reason to focus attention on downtown housing (e.g., projects like the residential towers on Broadway but also new infill closer to the NGA site) and overall livability (retail, etc) in the short-to-medium term.

The NGA site will be by far the largest gun free zone/serious crime free zone in the City of St. Louis. Of course guards at the facility will be armed, but no other weapons will be allowed, I'm sure.

I wonder if anyone ever considered an expanded perimeter or secondary perimeter a little further out that could include new housing developments or existing adjoining neighborhoods that ask to be inside the second perimeter. It could be similar to housing on military bases. Homes in those neighborhoods could be particularly attractive to employees of NGA.

You could use the article as the definition of land banking. Buy up cheap properties with even a more undervalued bid and offer no specifics because you are better off holding on to the property for the next 10 years or so when value is much much higher.

I don't think it is nothing more or nothing less than that at this point. Very different from the Jeff Arms where he has a sizeable investment in a large property that needs to be rehabbed, redeveloped and get as much leaseable space under contract(s) as soon as reasonably possible..

...listening to NPR yesterday talking about the defense budget getting their largest budget in the history of the US (13 trillion) and one of the interviews was talking about how good they are at spending money fast. It'll be interesting if any of that money gets this project moving along faster.

...listening to NPR yesterday talking about the defense budget getting their largest budget in the history of the US (13 trillion) and one of the interviews was talking about how good they are at spending money fast. It'll be interesting if any of that money gets this project moving along faster.

By early 2019, the Corps will select a firm to design and build the project. Its total $1.75 billion price tag includes $700 million for design and construction; the rest will pay for outfitting the campus with specialized NGA equipment, as well as the city’s costs for preparing the site for development.

Construction, due to begin by 2020, will tentatively include a 900,000-square-foot office building, a visitor center, inspection facility, access control points, one million square feet of parking garages plus surface parking, a cafeteria, fitness center, meeting spaces, and a campus landscape of grass, trees, and walking paths.

Of course the budget Trump submitted to Congress isn't going to pass, that's not how things actually work. Funding for NGA West has already been pilfered for Trump's Wall construction, and unless the courts rule against him we won't be getting it back. Gotta hope that Congress restores the funding at some point, but what will stop Trump from just unconstitutionally stealing it again?

Of course the budget Trump submitted to Congress isn't going to pass, that's not how things actually work. Funding for NGA West has already been pilfered for Trump's Wall construction, and unless the courts rule against him we won't be getting it back. Gotta hope that Congress restores the funding at some point, but what will stop Trump from just unconstitutionally stealing it again?

This is not true. No official decisions have been made regarding where the money for the wall is coming from. This is from yesterday's Washington Post:

The Pentagon has identified projects that could be affected, decisions have not yet been made. This is far, far from over. Many of these projects are in states and districts that are heavily republican. This is going to be a long drawn out battle that isn't likely to go his way. I'd hardly say the NGA project is dead, they wouldn't be issuing contracts if that were the case.

That article also includes the following sentence: "Of those, projects that involve military housing or that carry award dates before Sept. 30, 2019, won’t be touched, the statement said."
If today's announcement counts as an "award" then I think NGA may end up being just fine.

Looked like each team had a local power player, two with local contractors in McCarthy and Alberici and the third with HOK. I guess the one surprise to me is that HOK didn't team up with McCarthy and Alberici but then again not sure if they do much together in the first place.

My wife's good friend works at McCarthy at the their corporate office in Rockhill believe and always got a kick of seeing McCarthy pickup or two on my way home from work in the Bay Area as they had a few big hospital projects going on over the last few years out here.